Day 2

Menu plan for today...

Breakfast - 35g shredded wheat (0.25g), blueberries, 250ml milk
Lunch - 50g ham (0.8g), salad
Dinner - 75g pasta - yum carbs (0.4g), home pride pasta bake - I know, processed (5.3g), cauliflower, baby sweetcorn, 25g cheddar cheese (0.2g)

Total hidden sugars 6.95g

Day One - Starting the Process

So today is the first day of me reducing the hidden sugars in my diet and not replacing them with sweetners!

My menu plan for the day is:

Breakfast - 35g Shredded Wheat (0.25g Sugar), 125ml semi skimmed milk, handful of blueberries.1 boiled egg.

Lunch - 50g smoked ham (0.8g sugar), salad, 1 boiled egg

Dinner - 1 chicken quarter pounder (0.7g sugar) - yes it's processed, no I refuse to empty the contents of my freezer when there's people in the world that need food - it's the last one in the box!! 100g sweet potato, 150g mushy peas (2.1g sugar) - ditto for the chicken. 

Supper - 30g emmental cheese (0.6g sugar although this will be from the milk)

Days total - 4.45g hidden sugar

I've decided to list the sugar content for anything not in it's raw state - therefore if the sugar is in untouched fruit and vegetables I am not counting it and the same for milk because I firmly believe we need these in our diet. I do not suffer intolerances to milk and therefore do not plan to switch to an alternative. I limit myself to 250ml of semi skimmed milk a day. I have reduced my usual amount of fruit and added more vegetables instead.

Yes my dinner includes processed elements, I always said this would be a slow journey and I'm not cutting everything straight out. As I replace food in my house I am replacing it with unprocessed good stuff - I promise!

I haven't really talked about reducing carbs in my diet although my long term aim is to reduce the portion size of carbs on my plate. At the minute I can quite happily eat a bowl of pasta for dinner with nothing on the side when I should be looking to reduce the pasta portion and adding a vegetable side. This is something I'll look at as I progress.

Why Do I Want to Break the Cycle?

So I'm what I would class as a pretty normal human being - I like food (a lot) and don't move around as often as I should. Often I eat more than I move and a regular average UK size 14 (I would like this to be a 12 but I guess I need to work on the moving bit). I've done a number of 'diets' and a number of 'lifestyle plans' and to a degree they work but i've come to realise a lot of the 'fat free, low fat' products advocated in those plans all contain A LOT of sugar. I often get that mid-afternoon slump at my desk, feel tired and thinking a chocolate bar would help me out without actually wondering why i'm so lethargic in the first place. I've now come to the realisation that my body is now dependant on two things;

1) Sugar - and I love sweet food (if I turn down chocolate people think i'm seriously ill)
2) Chemicals - it worries me how many chemicals I'm putting into my body. Don't get me wrong i'm not intending to go all 'clean-eating' as I don't think that's practical for me; I just want to at least understand what ingredients are in the food I eat.

There's been a lot in the press of late regarding sugar-free diets, the dangers of sugar etc so I took it upon myself to actually read the Government paper on the increase in sugar in our diets. I then started to look at the nutrition guidance on food labels to understand how many grams of sugar is deemed 'low' - 5g per 100g of food. Then I looked at a couple of food labels on products I had with me - this is where I got shocked;

Fat free diet yoghurt 120g - nearly 12g of sugar!!
Cheese puffs (crisps) 16.5g - 1.1g of sugar - so 7% of a savoury snack is sugar! There's 6.6g of sugar per 100g of crisps - that's now a medium sugar product.
A 40g chocolate bar - 23.5g of sugar

NHS guidance suggests no more than 30g of added sugars per day for the average adult. By eating one low-fat yoghurt and one small bag of crisps and a chocolate bar I was already nearly 25% over my total without even thinking about it. 

I'm very realistic - this will not be an easy journey for me. I do snack, I do have a sweet tooth and I work in an office doing a very sedantry job. 

Step 1) Give the heavily chemicalled stuff a swift kicking. I gave up artifical sweetner in my tea in December - I didn't like the taste of tea for the next 2 months but I've stuck to it. However my intake of diet fizzy pop went up - probably as a substitute. That's the next habit to kick.

Step 2) Then it's understanding the processed foods I'm buying and how much hidden nasties are in them. No more low fat yoghurts etc. I need to make more time to cook properly every day - I have time to do this, I just need to make the effort. So an increase in fresh vegetables, lean protein etc. I need to make sure I have a well balanced breakfast and lunch (I have both at work) to prevent those mid-afternoon slumps. 

Step 3) I need to stop snacking - 3 meals a day are sufficient - previous generations coped on this doing a lot more manual labour than we do. I need to make sure i'm sufficiently hydrated to stop mistaking thirst for hunger.

Step 4) Get a spring in my step by nourishing my body and looking after it.

I want to learn what food actually tastes like again. I won't be giving up milk - I know some sugar-free people choose to due to the lactose however I don't have an intolerence and drink very little. I'd rather have the calcium benefit. I also won't be giving up fruit however I intend to switch to lower sugar fruit. Berries will be my staple because a) I love them and b) they are packed with so much other good stuff it makes sense. I do intend to read food labels when out and about and will opt for products that are classed as low sugar nutritionally. 

This blog will chart my journey. What food choices I make each day and how I feel it's impacting on my overall health. Can I go for a nap now....